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Coal vs. Renewable Energy

Solar, wind, and battery prices are dropping so fast that, in Colorado, building new renewable power plus battery storage is now cheaper than running old coal plants. This increasingly renders existing coal plants obsolete.

OK, so solar just took a blow via new tariffs. Here’s a story about renewables to brighten your day. From ThinkProgress 1/10/18:

Solar, wind, and battery prices are dropping so fast that, in Colorado, building new renewable power plus battery storage is now cheaper than running old coal plants. This increasingly renders existing coal plants obsolete.

Two weeks ago, Xcel Energy quietly reported dozens of shockingly low bids it had received for building new solar and wind farms, many with battery storage (see table below).

The median bid price in 2017 for wind plus battery storage was $21 per megawatt-hour, which is 2.1 cents per kilowatt-hour. As Carbon Tracker noted, this “appears to be lower than the operating cost of all coal plants currently in Colorado.”

The median bid price for solar plus battery storage was $36/MWh (3.6 cents/kwh), which may be lower than about three-fourths of operating coal capacity. For context…

2 thoughts on “Coal vs. Renewable Energy”

He wants to – but I don’t think he can. The horse has already bolted. Many of the recent developments are in wind and battery storage. The solar contractors who import solar panels have known about the impending tariff for 6 mos and have good stockpiles – plus the US has domestic producers who are rapidly expanding production capacity.